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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23354473">Feels like family</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aces_and_Roses/pseuds/Aces_and_Roses'>Aces_and_Roses</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Nosebleed, accidental book-throwing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 10:15:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>953</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23354473</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aces_and_Roses/pseuds/Aces_and_Roses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sasha’s a quiet person. Has been for as long as Zolf’s known her, and will probably continue to be for the rest of her life. She has a tendency to appear seemingly from nowhere and disappear just as silently, and she seems to like it that way. So, naturally, Zolf is used to being startled by her sudden appearances. That doesn’t mean he stops reacting to them, not in the least, just that his reactions aren’t as extreme as they used to be.</p><p>Most of the time.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Sasha Racket &amp; Zolf Smith</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>54</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Feels like family</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For the prompt: "I'm fine, let me see your face."</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sasha’s a quiet person. Has been for as long as Zolf’s known her, and will probably continue to be for the rest of her life. She has a tendency to appear seemingly from nowhere and disappear just as silently, and she seems to like it that way. So, naturally, Zolf is used to being startled by her sudden appearances. That doesn’t mean he stops reacting to them, not in the least, just that his reactions aren’t as extreme as they used to be.</p><p>Most of the time.</p><p>The thing is, Zolf’s been getting better. He’s working through his issues, addressing all his pent-up guilt and stress. He’s trying, which is more than could have been said about him for a very long time. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have bad days; everyone does. This just so happened to be one of them. All that his bad days mean now, though -  now that he doesn’t have to push through them for the sake of saving the world, now that he doesn’t blame himself for having them in the first place - is that he stays inside most of the day, curled up in his armchair, re-reading his favourite Campbell novels.</p><p>And, apparently, it also means that he gets so deeply engrossed in them that he nearly jumps out of his chair when Sasha suddenly appears in front of him. He doesn’t, not quite, but what he does is arguably worse. Because what he does is throw his book (a hardcover, a big one, too) directly at her with a noise that he will not call a shriek. Because it’s not.</p><p>Sasha must have been having a bad day too; most of the time she’s more than capable of dodging things that people throw at her. Or maybe she just trusts Zolf and the others enough to let her guard down, to not be quite as prepared to suddenly spring into action (and didn’t that make Zolf feel even worse about throwing his book at her).</p><p>So, needless to say, the book hits her. Not only that, but it hits her square in the face. She makes a startled noise, clutching her nose and staggering backward as the book falls at her feet.</p><p>And, somehow, it manages to get worse. In his rush to get up and see if Sasha is alright, Zolf manages to trip over his own mechanical feet, stumbling forward directly into her legs, knocking them out from under her and making her tumble down on top of him.</p><p>They both stay silent for a long moment, trying to process what just happened, before Sasha abruptly scrambles back, off of Zolf.</p><p>“Sorry if I was crushin’ you, boss.”</p><p>Zolf just lets out a groan as he props himself up on one elbow, using his other hand to move the book from where it had been digging into his ribs, then pushes himself the rest of the way to a seated position.</p><p>“You alright there?” Sasha asks. Glancing up, Zolf sees that she’s sitting about a foot in front of him, arms wrapped around her knees, looking guilty. She doesn’t seem to have noticed that her nose is bleeding yet.</p><p>Upon seeing that, Zolf immediately feels a stab of guilt. “I’m fine,” he says, scooting forward to sit closer to Sasha, leaning in to look at her nose even as she tilts her head in confusion, “let me see your face.”</p><p>Sasha just then seems to notice the injury, raising her hand to wipe away the blood, but really only succeeding in making it look worse. As Zolf reaches out to heal it, however, she draws away, and he withdraws his hand immediately. “‘S okay, boss. Doesn’t even hurt.”</p><p>Zolf raises an eyebrow at her, disbelieving. “You’re bleeding, Sasha.”</p><p>She doesn’t relent, pinching the bridge of her nose to try to stop the flow. “My fault, shouldn’t have startled you.”</p><p>“I shouldn’t have thrown a book at you, even if you startled me,” Zolf responds. “So, really, it’s my fault. Let me fix it.”</p><p>He reaches out to heal her again, and this time she doesn’t lean away. Within seconds, the bleeding has stopped, and Zolf pulls back. Sasha stares at him, blood still smeared on her upper lip, her expression unreadable. And then-</p><p>And then she starts to laugh; the kind of full-bodied, unrestrained laughter that he’d only seen from her a few times before. It’s bright and happy, and so contagious that Zolf can’t stop himself from laughing with her. She shifts to wrap one arm around his shoulders, squeezing tightly as their laughter continues.</p><p>This goes on for a few minutes, the two of them more than once nearly calming down, before they make the mistake of looking at each other and start back up again. It’s nice, being able to laugh about what an utterly ridiculous situation they’d managed to get themselves into. It feels familiar, comfortable. It feels like <em>family</em>.</p><p>It’s been a long time since Zolf’s been able to think that without it hurting. So, he lets himself get carried away, swept along for the ride, until their laughter dies out on its own.</p><p>“I- I can’t believe,” Sasha says a few minutes later, fighting to get the words out between gasping breaths, “that you threw a book at me.”</p><p>Zolf puts an arm around Sasha’s waist, returning the odd half-hug she’s still holding him in. “I can’t believe you let it hit you.”</p><p>The arm around his shoulders squeezes once more, before Sasha’s pulling back, his arm dropping as well. “We’re a right pair, aren’t we?” she says, a smile still fixed firmly on her face.</p><p>“That we are,” Zolf agrees, smiling back. “That we are.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm on tumblr at redactedquill if anyone wants to shoot me a prompt!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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